Using LinkedIn to Recruit: A complete guide in 2022 If you are reading this, you probably spent hours figuring out dos and don'ts on how to get the best out of LinkedIn in your recruiting process.

Here I tried to break down the Why, What, and How to use LinkedIn properly in hiring. LinkedIn is the greatest business network on earth With 722 million users, LinkedIn is by far the largest community of professionals and a potential business network around the globe up from 675 in January 2021 according to Microsoft's FY21 Q1 report.

LinkedIn reported: "We saw record engagement again this quarter as LinkedIn’s more than 722 million professionals looked to connect with their communities, learn new skills, and find new opportunities."

Another takeaway from the report I found interesting was the record point of 40 million active job seekers each week, keeping the edge over all other job boards.   Contribution is inevitable, but how to start properly? So here I try to walk you through step by step.

1. Profiling

a. Personal Profiling First things first, you'll need a LinkedIn account. It requires few personal, professional information and a photo. Visit LinkedIn Signup Page and follow the signup process. You will be given a few forms to fill to collect the required profiling information in a progressive process starting by location, your current professional status, and your desire for a new job.LinkedIn Sign up pageLinkedIn Signup process Right after the signup process completion, you will be landed in either your profile page or Job search page upon your selected options. I suggest to click on the LinkedIn logo on the top left side of the page and click on your name to get into your profile and complete the profiling by providing deeper information and connecting to your network, colleagues, and communities.

b. Company Profiling You can start creating company profile by either clicking on the "Work" drop down menu on the top right and select "Create Company Page +" or visiting LinkedIn Company Page Help   Select the most relevant type of the page among them and keep going forward.

I suggest to take your time here and provide a complete company information including a unique URL, industry, the size of the company and any other information helping in providing clarity to potential customers, followers or candidates. That is a great part of employer branding. Be a story teller, update the status timely, share your company values, articles and in a single point, seize the moment.

Keep it simple, short, stick to a content strategy, and use a consistent tone of voice. People admire you for being human and interacting with them as well.

A LinkedIn business profile, in my opinion, can be compared to a fan page. Add your product/service catalog, invite the network to visit your business blog, exchange posts, and get all of your fans together under one roof. Since LinkedIn restricts updates to public profiles, make sure all information is accurate, authentic, and up to date.

2. Post a job To post a job on LinkedIn you have two options to either free post a job at the time with lower listing priority or paid posts that ranks higher among the other job posts according to the bidding amount.   Click on the "Post a free job" button to begin the process. Right after starting a job post, you will be redirected to a form to identify the job title and company you are hiring for, and the location.

Depends on your recruiting strategy either the position is remote, visa sponsorship,… a great tactic to get a higher amount of applicants while stay within the budget is to advertise in different locations.

You will need to write a job description to continue the posting process. Try to make it clear and comprehensive including all relative keywords. Having proper keywords will let help LinkedIn to match the proper candidate and show them your job ad and increase your reach. I suggest listing your perks and the benefits package you offer to your employees.

How do you like candidates to apply? You will be given two different options with relevant consequences.

1. Email Application "In-app": The method will let the candidates apply on LinkedIn by their profile while has the "Easy Apply" tag on your job ad. You will be notified via email about the applied candidates, but the bigger impact is on the application rate which is by far higher than the other method " External Website" as longs as it provides an in-app one-click application experience to the candidate. The problem with this application method is you need to add filtered candidates to your "Applicant Tracking System" manually while you have other job boards to advertise.

2- External Website: In this method, the applicant will be redirected to your career site on your website provided by your Recruiting platform. I prefer this method personally due to the natural filtration in the application process, and the better selection process for the recruiting team while combining all candidates in one pipeline from all other job boards too. IMHO, it may decrease the number of applicants, but that is a great filtration for those who indeed think are a good match.

Set the budget LinkedIn offers a PPC (Pay-Per-Click) model and your billing cycle can be vary based on a few conditions.  Your charge amount depends on your job posts’ daily budget and the number of views from candidates. You only pay for job views by candidates and aren’t billed for views from LinkedIn employees or the job poster. As a result, you might see a discrepancy in the number of views and the amount charged.